Correlates of religious, supernatural and psychosocial causal beliefs about depression among Latino immigrants in primary care

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore causal attributions about depression and to identify psychosocial factors associated with these beliefs among Latino immigrants. We interviewed 177 primary care patients with instruments to assess causal beliefs, depressive and somatic symptom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mental health, religion & culture
Authors: Caplan, Susan (Author) ; Paris, Manuel (Author) ; Whittemore, Robin (Author) ; Desai, Mayur (Author) ; Dixon, Jane (Author) ; Alvidrez, Jennifer (Author) ; Escobar, Javier (Author) ; Scahill, Lawrence (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis 2011
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Year: 2011, Volume: 14, Issue: 6, Pages: 589-611
Further subjects:B Latinos / Hispanics
B Stigma
B Health beliefs
B Depression
B Primary Care
B Immigrants
B causal attributions
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore causal attributions about depression and to identify psychosocial factors associated with these beliefs among Latino immigrants. We interviewed 177 primary care patients with instruments to assess causal beliefs, depressive and somatic symptoms, ethnic identity and stigma. An exploratory factor analysis of the Causal Beliefs scale yielded three factors, "Balance," "Psychosocial" and "Malevolent Spirituality/Transgressions" that were used as dependent variables in multivariate analyses. Depressive symptoms, age, country of origin and religiosity were significantly associated with particular factors of causal beliefs. Those with higher education were most likely to endorse psychosocial causal beliefs. Stigma pertained to causal beliefs related to "malevolent forces" and "personal transgressions." In conclusion, psychosocial and religious explanations of illness were strongly endorsed by these Latino immigrants, indicating a dual system of Western-medicine and traditional beliefs. These results suggest culturally-specific interventions for improving health knowledge and communication with patients about depression.
ISSN:1469-9737
Contains:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2010.497810